MLBTR reported that he Phillies announced they will not extend the contract
of general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. According to a team press release,
assistant GM Scott Proefrock will take over as interim GM, effective
immediately.
“It’s never an easy decision to make a change,” said president-to-be
Andy MacPhail in the press release. “Ruben has had a direct impact on
some of the best years in the team’s history. He helped to create some
great memories for Phillies fans with his accomplishments, but in order
to return to a top-contending club, we believe this is the right thing
to do as we continue the rebuilding process.”
The writing has been on the wall for quite some time that Amaro’s
days as GM were numbered. It’s been widely expected that in the wake of
the team’s collapse over the past four seasons, MacPhail would seek to
hire a new GM to guide the Phillies — possibly one that will bring a
stronger commitment to analytics to the organization.
Amaro, 50, has been the Phillies’ general manager since the 2008
offseason, when he succeeded Pat Gillick. The Phillies made a World
Series run in Amaro’s first full year as GM, ultimately coming up short
to the Yankees, and went on to reach the postseason in the 2010 and 2011
campaigns as well. However, a number of the trades made by Amaro that
were aimed at keeping the team in contention served, instead, to only
deplete the farm system while failing to pay significant on-field
dividends.
This is the second major organizational move since MacPhail was hired. Ryne Sandberg abruptly resigned from field manager position.
With the Phillies now in the hunt for a GM, that creates five such
openings around the league. The Angels, Mariners, Red Sox and Brewers
are all on the hunt for new general managers as well, meaning there will
be a significant amount of baseball operations changes in the coming
months. Not only will each team employ a new GM, but those five newly
minted executives will undoubtedly have some changes in store for the
baseball operations departments and the field staffs which they’ll
inherit upon taking their new roles.
The Cubs Jed Hoyer is believed to be high on the GM candidate lists.
